She's First [gxg]

6. Je T'aime

"Hey, hey, wake up sleepyhead."

That was the first thing I heard when I awoke from my lucid sleep. I wasn't quite awake yet though, so I just flipped around and tried to brush the voice off as some insignificant noise. Why would anyone want to wake me up this Saturday morning? I was planning on sleeping in until 12pm today.

And that's when the poking began. It was incessant and persistent and so annoying that I couldn't ignore it any longer. I got my face up from my pillow, sat up and faced this mystery person with my eyes still squinting from the brightness of daylight that shone through my open blinds.

"Whatt?" I groaned, hoping my mom or Tara or whoever it was would shove off after telling me something that was probably irrelevant to actually getting decent sleep.

"That's the kind of 'welcome home' you give your dear old dad? Who are you and what have you done with my baby girl?" I opened my eyes wide and stared at the man in front of me.

"DADDY!" I squeaked like a little girl (or a boy going through puberty) and hugged him from the torso with such a force that he winced.

"Ah, a bit too tight, sweetheart. I'm called your old man for a reason, you know?"

As soon as I let go of him, I onced him over. He was wearing a black and white suit with a blue tie, his favorite color, and a dark brown trench coat over everything. He had a shaved head, not completely bald, and had grown out his black-haired beard more than usual, about 1/2 an inch out from his face. His eyes were a light seaweed green, of which the green around my pupil matched. My dad has a timeless sort of face because if you looked at him, you couldn't tell if he was 30 or 55 (although he was only 43).

"Wow, look at you, all dressed up and such. Going to go with mom on a date this morning or whatnot?"

"No no, I just got off my flight from New York. The first thing I was planning on doing when I got home was waking up your mom, but by the time I got here she was gone to her Book Club." He sighed. "So, I woke you up instead. The day is full of oppurtunities, why waste one inside all day?" He then chuckled and grinned, showing off his crow's feet next to his eyes.

"Ah, I see. Save the zen monk talk for your conferences, okay?"

"I'm full of 43 years of knowledge, why waste it on some old farts stuck in their ways instead of using it on my dynamic daughter?" He ruffled my hair then started heading out my door. "Come downstairs for breakfast when you're ready, yeah?"

My door closed silently and I heard his heavy footsteps travel down the stairs into the kitchen.

I was positive I wasnt going to do anything today, but I brushed out my hair and got dressed anyways. I put on a black halter top with a white laced back and red capri pants. In 30 minutes I was headed out my room to go eat breakfast.

When I made it downstairs and into our white tiled kitchen, I saw my dad sitting at the table with a coffee in hand already and a bagel with cream cheese on it feom the fridge. He had changed from his business attire into some golf shorts, a polo shirt and into his favorite white cap. I passed him and went into the pantry.

I searched the contents of the pantry and found a box of S'more poptarts that made my mouth water. I picked up the surprisingly light box to find nothing but empty air, and tossed it into the nearby trash bin, frustrated.  Instead I settled on a bowl of some artifically fruit-flavored cereal and sat at the table across from my dad. He looked up at me from his newspaper and smiled. I knew what was coming next.

Whenever my dad gets back, he always has some funny story to tell me about his travels and something to give to me. I always looked forward to that last part, and I usually brainstorm about what he had gotten me so much that I barely pay attention to his story.